Konoha's Hunter
by BabLe7
Summary: On Naruto's fifth birthday he is given a pet. That pet inspired him to pursue an unusual specialty. Poisons. With the eyes of a hawk he locates and brings down his prey like a master hunter. pairing undecided M for when i randomly add detailed violence. INDEFINITE HIATUS. CHECK PAGE FOR REASONS.


Konoha's Hunter

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If you are reading this, wanting and expecting Naruto to be an idiot at the beginning of the story, stop reading now and find another story.

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Naruto was sitting at his desk holding a vial of amber liquid. This was a test batch of a new formula of truth serum that the guys in the torture and interrogation department would just love to test out. As he stood to walk out of his lab/apartment his long-time companion, an extremely overgrown scorpion, crawled up his arm and rest on his shoulder. As he walked out the door of his apartment towards the ANBU building he took the time to think back to when his life changed for the better, the day he received Dokuhime, his scorpion.

The Hokage gave the scorpion to him as a pet on his fifth birthday. Along with the scorpion, Naruto was given a booklet on how to care for and raise a scorpion. Naruto immediately named his pet Dokuhime as he had been told it was a female. Dokuhime was given to him before she had even molted her shell for the first time; in addition to that, the Hokage had told Naruto that she was one of the rarest species of scorpion. So until she was able to move around safely on her own, Naruto would always have Dokuhime resting on his shoulder.

One day, roughly six months after his birthday, while he was feeding Dokuhime crickets Naruto decided to check the booklet he was given to see how big scorpions grew. He found out that the largest they usually grow to be is about seven and a half inches. Dokuhime, like a normal scorpion, grew to that expected length. Unlike a normal scorpion though, she continued to grow until she was about the size of a large house cat. Around his eighth birthday, Dokuhime seemed to finally stop growing.

Another peculiar thing about Dokuhime was that she had three tails instead of one. Each one apparently held a different kind of poison, one could temporarily paralyze, one could cause hallucinations and he final one acted like a sedative but had psychoactive qualities that compelled one to speak the truth. The third one is the one he derived the serum that was in his inside coat pocket from.

As he walked through the doors of the ANBU headquarters the ANBU at the door just nodded to him in acknowledgement before stepping out of the way so that Naruto could go visit Ibiki and Anko. This was actually a fairly regular occurrence. Whenever he made a new poison that needed to be tested, Naruto would bring it over to the ANBU and have them field-test it for him. As he walked into Ibiki's office, he noticed that Anko was there with a disgruntled expression on her face. "Hello Anko-chan." Naruto greeted.

Anko's mood noticeably brightened upon hearing the greeting. "Hey brat. What brings you down here this time?" She smiled a smile that was somewhere between happy and sadistic, she knew that every time Naruto stopped by he left her with a new toy to try out.

"I fixed the formula for the truth serum. Your victims shouldn't spontaneously fall asleep during interrogations anymore." He said as he handed her the vial. "Remember, that's just a test batch. If it works any better than the last formula, tell me and I'll make more for you."

"Sure. Now hurry on back to the academy brat, the graduation test is today and I don't think that you want to miss it." She said before putting the vial in a pocket of her trench coat and walking out of the room in search for Ibiki as she didn't feel like waiting for him in his office anymore.

Naruto looked at his wristwatch and saw that he had another hour and a half before he needed to be in the classroom for the test, so he decided to give the Hokage a quick visit. After a thirty-minute walk, Naruto had arrived and knocked on the Hokage's office door.

"Come in." The Sandaime's voice came from the other side of the door.

Naruto opened the door and walked in, closing it behind him. "Hi ojii-san." Naruto greeted.

"Hello Naruto-kun, what can I do for you?" Sarutobi asked.

"I was wondering if I could get a note from you excusing me from having to perform the bunshin no jutsu during the exam today."

"What would be the reason for your request?"

"It's impossible for me to perform the jutsu. I have too much chakra." Naruto explained.

"I see." The Sandaime said in a thoughtful tone before taking out a scrap of paper and scribbling something down on it before handing it to Naruto. "Here, give this to Iruka when he calls you back for that portion of the test."

"Thanks ojii-san!" Naruto called as he ran out the door and towards the academy.

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Naruto arrived at the academy with a full half hour to spare. Since he was the first one there, he picked a seat in the back row near the window. Naruto took the time before the test to just relax as the other students filtered in and slowly filled in the seats. He almost burst out laughing when Sakura and Ino burst through the door. They had lost their balance and fell, ending in them accidentally kissing each other (I had to have the accidental kiss somewhere and with someone but I refused to have it be Naruto and Sasuke again). When the two of them were finally back on their feet, Naruto smiled at Sakura who in turn smiled back at him. They had treated each other like siblings since they were six, when Naruto scared away some older kids who were picking on her because of her large forehead. Sakura's mother might not have liked Naruto very much, but if the two of them spending time together kept her little princess happy, she would tolerate the boy.

Soon Iruka and Mizuki walked into the room, Iruka carrying his clipboard and Mizuki carrying a stack of test papers. "Alright everyone settle down!" Iruka called as he stood in front of his desk. "Today we will be having your graduation exam. It will consist of a written exam to test your practical knowledge, a test of your accuracy with kunai and shuriken, and a jutsu exam to test your ability to perform the three academy jutsus. We will not be testing your taijutsu today as we did that yesterday to allow more time for these three tests." Iruka said before turning to Mizuki. "Okay, Mizuki, hand out the exams while I get the other tests set up."

Mizuki nodded and started handing out the written tests.

When Naruto got his test he immediately dispelled the minor genjutsu that Mizuki had placed on it before answering as many of the twenty questions as he could. That ended up being sixteen of them.

During the accuracy test Naruto came in second as on of the kunai missed the bull's-eye (that's the correct term, it just looks weird to me) by half an inch. Sasuke had come in first as expected.

Now it was time for the Jutsu exam. Naruto wasn't exactly worried about it, but he still had an uneasy feeling about something. "Uzumaki Naruto." Iruka called from the exam room. Naruto got up and walked into the room. "Alright, Naruto, I need you to perform the kawarimi, henge and bunshin no jutsus for me." Iruka said as soon as Naruto entered the room.

So Naruto went through the jutsus in order. He switched places with Mizuki and transformed himself and Dokuhime into the Hokage before handing Iruka the note from the Hokage. As soon as he saw Iruka smirk, he knew he should have read the note the Hokage gave him before he handed it to Iruka. "I take it that ojii-san wants me to do something in place of the bunshin?" Naruto asked.

"That is correct. Hokage-sama would like you to explain how you create an antidote for a poison." Iruka answered. Mizuki grinned inwardly, no one at the academy knew he was well versed in how poisons worked, were made, and how to create antidotes for them so Mizuki thought he was sure to fail.

Naruto blinked. That was all he had to do? That was easy for him. So Naruto explained the process to them. And he did it in so much detail that it left both Iruka and Mizuki with their jaws hanging. When Iruka finally picked his jaw up off the floor he handed Naruto a headband and told him to be back on Friday for team assignments. (today was Wednesday)

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Location: Hokage's tower, Thursday evening

The fifteen jounin that were available to be senseis were in the Hokage's office so that students could be assigned fitting and beneficial senseis. Unfortunately, twenty-eight students passed this year leaving one extra genin who wouldn't have a team or there would have to be a team of four. Unfortunately, none of the senseis were willing to take a team of four genin so that left a genin without a team.

While there were a few jounin willing to have Naruto on their team, none of them had skills that would truly be of any benefit to the boy. Just as the Hokage was beginning to get desperate about finding Naruto a good sensei, Anko walked through the doors of his office with a scroll on her back. She handed the scroll to Sarutobi, revealing it to be the Forbidden Scroll.

"Mizuki was caught attempting to steal that. When we interrogated him while using Naruto's newest truth serum formula he revealed that he was working for Orochimaru and that he was planning on taking the scroll to him." Anko reported. She looked around for a second, noticing all of the jounin in the room. "Sorry for disturbing your meeting." She then turned to leave before the Hokage stopped her.

"Hold on a second Anko." Sarutobi said as he laid the large scroll down on his desk. "How would you like to be Naruto's sensei?"

She turned back to the Hokage with a puzzled look on her face. "Why ask me?"

"Because you're the only person in this village who knows enough about poisons and anything else Naruto-kun uses to be able to teach him anything of benefit to him, and besides, I believe it would help him to be able to open up around people other than me and the pink haired girl he talks to."

"Fine, the brat's fun to tease anyway." Anko said.

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Location: Academy classroom, Friday morning

The classroom was noisy as everyone talked amongst themselves about whose team they wanted to be on and the like. Naruto sighed. All of the noise was making Dokuhime agitated. She was shifting around restlessly on his shoulder and that didn't help his nerves one bit. His attention snapped to the door when it slid open and Iruka walked in.

"Everyone quiet down!" Iruka yelled, using the demon head jutsu. Once everyone was quiet he continued. "Before I start listing teams I first want to say congratulations on passing. One more thing before I start assigning teams; Naruto, your sensei wants you to meet her at the Interrogation and Torture division of the ANBU HQ."

"Iruka-sensei, before I go I have one question. What was the Hokage smoking when he assigned her as my sensei and can I have some?" nonetheless Naruto got up and walked out of the room and down to the I.T. division. He already had a good idea as to who his sensei was so he was not surprised when he saw Anko standing there, waiting for him.

"Hiya, brat." Anko said.

"Hey Anko-chan. How'd the new formula work?" Naruto replied.

"It worked great. All thanks to Dokuhime here." Anko said as she began to pet the large scorpion. "Alright brat, time to get down to business. Let's go to a dango shop and I'll tell you what I'm going to be teaching you." On that note, the two headed for Anko's favorite place to eat, Jack's Dango Warehouse.

After the two were seated and their orders taken Anko began. "Alright brat, listen up. I'm going to be training you in poisons both in and out of combat as well as anything else I think you need to know."

"Okay."

"Now tell me, what's your favorite weapon?"

"Bow and poison-tipped arrows." Naruto responded.

"That's an interesting choice. Not many shinobi use bows anymore. But that does give you several advantages already. You have a greater attack range than most shinobi as well as the fact that no one would be expecting someone to be using a bow and they would be poorly prepared for it. I'll show you a technique later that might be of use for when you're using your bow."

As soon as she finished talking, their food arrived. The two of them ate in silence. When they finished eating, Naruto asked a question that popped into his head earlier, "Anko-chan, do you know how to make explosive seals?"

"Yeah, why?" she asked, not exactly understanding where he was going with this.

"Would you be wiling to etch one into one of my non-poisoned arrows? I want to test something." He answered.

"Exploding arrows? That's a fairly dangerous idea. I like it. I'll get one ready for you after we get to the ANBU training ground."

"Why that training ground?" Naruto asked.

"If we're there, then I can get you a temporary replacement sensei if I get called to help in an interrogation. Besides, with your specialty and skill set you'll most likely eventually end up in ANBU at some point so why not get to know the people you may be working with beforehand." She said in a cheery voice.

"I guess that makes sense." Naruto said.

So the two paid for their meals and headed off toward the training ground.

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Hokage's office, two and a half months later (training is secret for now and do you really want me to type out d rank missions? Didn't think so)

Naruto hands Tora back to the fire daimyo's wife. "Mission complete ojii-san." Naruto said in a voice that all but screamed bored.

"Very good Naruto. I have another mission for the two of you. You are to travel with Team 7 on their first C rank mission as I feel they could use a little more help on the mission. They'll be meeting at the main gate at two in the afternoon so go get your stuff packed and head over there."

"Awesome, possible new test subjects for my poisons." Naruto said with a sadistic grin.

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed. Anko was wearing off on Naruto. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to make her his sensei after all. "Just go. And don't forget to bring extra amounts of raw meat for Dokuhime. You might also want to bring extra dango for Anko since we both know she'll blow through her own supplies in one day."

"I will not." Anko protested weakly. Naruto, Sandaime and Dokuhime just stared at her. "Ok, so I probably would."

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Konoha's main gate, 1:45 pm

"Where is he!?" Sakura all but screamed, making her two other team members and the client wince at the volume.

"Where is who?" a familiar voice asked from her left.

"My sensei." She answered without turning.

"And who's your sensei, imouto?" The same familiar voice asked.

"Kakashi." She answered, still without turning to the voice. "He's always two hours late. We were supposed to meet here at noon for the miss-" She stopped her rant when she realized that the person talking to her had called her 'imouto'. Only one person ever calls her that. She turned to see her blond haired shinobi. And promptly tackled him to the ground in a hug. "Naruto! How are you? Who's your sensei? How's Dokuhime? What are you doing here? When are you going to teach me more about first aid and poison treatment? When"

"Slow down. One question at a time." Naruto interrupted. "Well in order; good, Mitarashi Anko, great, ojii-san sent us to help with your first C rank mission, and the next time I get the chance."

Sasuke, the king of all that is brood, scoffed. "Why would we need your help dobe?"

"Because I've already completed three and you guys haven't done any. Hey Sai, how are you?" Naruto replied. 'No need to tell them that all of those missions were making antitoxins and antidotes for the hospital and ANBU.'

Sai, Team 7's third member, gave a smile that Naruto could tell was only partially faked. To anyone else Sai only gives a fake smile. Naruto was unique in Sai's eyes; Naruto was Sai's only friend. "I'm fine, Naruto-san. How are you?"

"I'm good." Naruto said. "So I guess that we wait for Kakashi-san then?"

Fifteen minutes later, Kakashi arrived. "Hey brat. Hey Anko. Hokage-sama as already informed me as to why you're here. So let's go."

And so a disgruntled and brooding Sasuke, an unreadable Sai, a happy Sakura and Naruto, a smut-reading Kakashi, a grinning Anko and a half-drunk bridge builder walked out of Konoha towards Wave Country. Everyone could tell that this was going to at least feel like a long trip.

Something had been bothering Sakura ever since they had left Konoha. So she decided to ask Naruto about it. "Naruto why do I always hear Anko and Kakashi call you brat?"

"It's because the entirety of ANBU see him as a little brother of sorts. He has, after all, saved all of our lives at one point or another in one way or another with his poisons and antidotes." Anko answered for Naruto.

"Really?" Naruto asked cheekily. "I always thought it was because of how cute I was." He said before laughing a little.

The bridge builder was starting to get worried. These two new additions to the group guarding him didn't seem to take anything seriously. "Kakashi-san are you sure these two will be of use on this mission?"

"Don't worry. Naruto can sense and deal with a threat at greater distances than even the Hokage can, 200 yards easily, and Anko is the Snake Mistress of Konoha. You have nothing to worry about in regards to those two."

The rest of the day was uneventful. That night, since the weather was nice, everyone slept outside in sleeping bags. It was rather funny though, when Anko and Sakura started an argument over who would get to use Naruto as a teddy bear for the night. Of course it didn't matter in the end as Naruto opted to sleep on a tree branch for the night.

The next day also proved to be uneventful until Naruto stopped walking suddenly. He slowly pulled his bow from his back and nocked an arrow but didn't pull back. "There are two mist nukenin hiding under a genjutsu of a puddle up ahead. They appear to be the Demon Brothers. They appear to be waiting for at least one member of our group." Naruto said as he drew back on his bow. He closed his left eye as the iris of his dominant right eye turned an amber-gold color. "Be prepared to grab them." He loosed the arrow causing the bowstring to sing with delight. The arrow flew straight into the center of the puddle, embedding itself halfway into the ground. Naruto started walking, putting the bow on his back in the process.

"Nice shot dobe. That did absolutely nothing." Said the ever emo Sasuke.

Naruto just kept walking. He held up three fingers over his shoulder, slowly counting down. When he was no longer holding any fingers up the arrow detonated with the force of three explosive notes, sending the two that were hiding in the puddle careening into trees on opposite sides of the road. Both of them slumped to the ground unconscious. "You were saying?" Naruto said as he turned his head to look at Sasuke out of his left eye. "Anko-chan, they're all yours." Naruto told his sensei as he tossed her a vial of amber liquid.

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Abilities that I will introduce that you may find interesting:

-Taka no me: Hawk's Eye, an ability Naruto developed to be used with his bow to improve his range and accuracy.

- Koura no Kongou: Shell/Carapace of Diamond, an ability Naruto developed to temporarily make Dokuhime's shell/carapace indestructible so that Dokuhime can work apart from Naruto.

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Note: You may or may not have noticed, but Dokuhime acts more like an intelligent cat than a scorpion. There's a very good reason for that. Dokuhime is a familiar, which by my definition is a/an (highly) intelligent animal or spirit companion. Dokuhime therefore also share a type of link with Naruto, empathic or otherwise, I haven't decided which yet.

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Omake:

It was karaoke night at the bar and all the guys decided to do a song together. The ladies thought it would be amusing so they stayed around to watch.

The ghost of the Yondaime Hokage then appeared in the middle of the stage with a mic in hand. He brought the mic up to his mouth to open the song.

-(-(-Carry On My Wayward Son - Kansas-)-)-

"Carry on my wayward son

There'll be peace when you are done

Lay your weary head to rest

Don't you cry no more" Minato sang. Lee and Gai then broke out in guitars as Kakashi started with the drums and Naruto played the keyboard.

"Once I rose above the noise and confusion

Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion

I was soaring ever higher

But I flew too high" Deidara sang (where'd he come from?)

"Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man

Though my mind could think I still was a mad man

I hear the voices when I'm dreaming

I can hear them say" Sang the Naruto from 'Turning a Blind Eye' (How'd he get here?)

"Carry on my wayward son

There'll be peace when you are done

Lay your weary head to rest

Don't you cry no more" Minato sang. He then held the mic for Kakashi to sing.

Gai lee Naruto and Kakashi then break into a short 'solo'

"Masquerading as a man with a reason

My charade is the event of the season" Kakashi half slurred in his drunken state.

"And if I claim to be a wise man, well

It surely means that I don't know" Shikamaru finished the line for him.

"On a stormy sea of moving emotion

Tossed about I'm like a ship on the ocean" Naruto from this fic sang.

"I set a course for winds of fortune" Kakuzu sang. (where are they coming from?)

"But I hear the voices say" Orochimaru joined in. (I no longer care how they keep getting here. Besides, we all know he's crazy)

"Carry on my wayward son

There'll be peace when you are done

Lay your weary head to rest

Don't you cry no more" Minato sang.

"No!" Kyuubi somehow managed to shout.

Another 'solo'

"Carry on," Pein shouted, all six of him.

"you will always remember" Itachi sang.

"Carry on," Pein shouted again

"nothing equals the splendor" Itachi sang.

"The center lights around your vanity" Kisami sang

"But surely heaven waits for you" Hidan sang.

"Carry on my wayward son

There'll be peace when you are done

Lay your weary head to rest

Don't you cry (don't you cry no more)" everyone sang, even Shino.

Then gai lee Kakashi and Naruto played the outro.

The crowd went wild. The stage was mobbed by rabid fangirls. None of the guys made it home without torn clothes or at least five lipstick marks on their faces. They unanimously voted to never do that again unless they were completely and undeniably drunk to the point that they wouldn't remember it the next morning.

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I hope you enjoyed my omake. Please review and tell me what you think. Pairings aren't set and I will go into necessary detail later about the training. I'm taking suggestions for pairings in this and the only large age gap pairing that I'm allowing is Anko. So again for those of you who don't get it, Pairing is up for vote, tell me what you think, if negative tell me how to fix it.

Ja ne.


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